Listeners from as far away as Virginia rolled in for the shindig, and so did the usual suspects, the lawyers and cops and students and all the others that wouldn’t think of starting their day without John and Lance or ending it without Sean and John.

Sporting News Radio executives were there, and so was the great Tim Brando, as decent a man as you’ll ever meet and a man who, by the way, does one of the best sports talk shows in the land.

We cracked funny on our sponsors and staff and on our shows. We finished the night with boxer Jennifer Scott decking Ken Hoffman in a bout that turned out not to be the pretend match some of us expected.

I’m a very small part of 1560. In fact, my place in 1560 history will be the first on-air guy to have his daily show cancelled. Were there harsh words? Oh yes, brother, oh yes. I thought they’d pulled the plug on two hours that were as smart as Charlie Rose and as funny as David Letterman. They thought otherwise.

I’m still proud to have my corner at 1560. I’m actually more proud than I can tell you. I’ve worked all over this country, in Chicago and Baltimore and Washington, in Abilene and Fort Worth and Austin. I’ve had more editors than I can count.

There’s an amazing work environment at 1560. It encourages creativity and risk-taking. It starts with good people at the top and with treating everyone with respect.

It’s intense. I get there at 6:30 some mornings, and sales people are already starting to show up for work. Sean and John probably spend four or five hours preparing for their four-hour show.

To understand this atmosphere, you have to understand how 1560 was born. Richard Topper and John Granato grew tired of the oppressive atmosphere at 610 and believed if someone would give them a chance they could do it better. David Gow became that someone.

They brought along Chance McClain from 610, and was told his best ideas wouldn’t be immediately rejected. He brought along his best friend, Frank Bullington, and they’re the ones that give 1560 its atmospherics, it’s craziness.

And there’s Lance Zierlein, the most talented person in Houston radio. His characters, his thoughtfulness, his genius is a huge, huge reason 1560 is succeeding. He and John Granato have this chemistry on the air that works. I’ve worked with and around them for almost 10 years. I don’t know how it works, only that it does.

Logic and recent history said 1560 wouldn’t make it. Successful radio stations are corporately owned. Decisions are made from miles and miles away. Bosses believe that Houston is the same as Los Angeles is the same as Miami is the same as Atlanta. We’ve got local investors and local people in charge. They know our teams and our fans and our schools and our restaurants.

Does it matter? Well, John and Lance came from nowhere to have the No. 1 sports talk show in the city. I mean, they literally came from nowhere. Stuff was being unpacked from cardboard boxes only days before 1560 was supposed to go on the air. We didn’t have a passable signal for months.

When the executives at 610 were trying to convince me to stay, they said that 1560 wouldn’t get a studio built, much less a station on the air. For a few weeks there, it looked like they might me right.

Now John and Lance are No. 1 and people are becoming hooked on Sean and John, too. Ken Hoffman has more than held his own against Jim Rome.

Our kids, Raheel Ramzanali and David Nuno, have made 1560 the cool station among athletes. Texas WR David Anderson loves the place. So does the Puma (who’ll text his character requests to the morning boys) and Daryl Morey and Wesley Wright and Kevin Sumlin and Brian Ching and Stuart Holden and plenty of others.

Who knows where it’s going to end? AM radio is a tough sell. Houston has four sports stations, and they’re not all going to survive. We’ve had some dark times at 1560, some days when the signal was terrible and the sponsors weren’t knocking down the door.

What the boys did then was keep going. They would listen to Hoffy’s show and to Sean and John, and they’d remind themselves that the product is plenty good and if people give the station a chance it might just all work out.

If it doesn’t, we had a heck of a run anyway. We chased a dream. And we’ve already made it two years longer than a lot of people thought possible.

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